Internet penetration in Vietnam, Asia

Online penetration in Vietnam, Asia has grown to 40 million Vietnamese consumers in 2015. Vietnam’s internet penetration is now at 44%. Market research in Vietnam, Asia conducted by the market research agency Cimigo amongst 5000 Vietnamese consumers Vietnam consumer online behaviour highlights far more urban Vietnamese consumers are online than are not. Market research Vietnam, Asia demonstrates that from grocery shoppers to credit card holders the majority of Vietnam’s consumers are online. Key decision makers for household purchases are predominantly online. Whether it is for detergents, shampoo or pharmaceuticals Vietnam’s consumers are actively online.

Market research Vietnam, Asia highlights how three quarters of Vietnam’s consumers are looking for brands online, claiming that the internet helps them find out about new products. Two thirds of Vietnamese consumers are online every day and on average are spending 180 minutes online per day.

Online consumer behaviour Vietnam, Asia

Cimigo’s market Asia research Vietnam, Asia highlights that online, mobile and social media Vietnam, Asia 2015 is dominated by local sites for news, local content for entertainment; in contrast global sites are used for online search, social media and video streaming. However for the latter local content remains king.

Whilst the use of search spans 15 to 64-year-olds there are clear differences in the usage of online behaviour, consumer market research Vietnam, Asia demonstrates that the younger generation have a much higher tendency to use social media, chatting and entertainment whilst the older population, particularly those over 35, spend far more time on new sites.

Social media Vietnam, Asia

The most used social media in Vietnam is Facebook. The number of Facebook users in Vietnam has grown from under 1.4 million in early 2011 to over 30 million of March 2015. One in three of the population of Vietnam are Facebook users today. Instagram is a growing challenger in Vietnam, particularly for a younger audience aged 12-19 years.

Consumer market researchVietnam, Asia demonstrates that social media in Vietnam is a having a profound effect on the online journey for Vietnam’s consumers, the sites they visit and the share of time spent online.

Mobile internet Vietnam, Asia

Mobile internet Vietnam, Asia has gone through a revolution in the past three years. Our online consumer market research Vietnam, Asia shows that 9 in 10 urban online consumers have access the Internet via their mobile phone. This is in part explained by the explosive growth in sales of mobile smartphones. In 2012 16 million mobile phones were sold however only 18% of these mobile phones were mobile smartphones. Year to date as of October 2015 25 million mobile smartphones have been sold in Vietnam. Mobile internet Vietnam, Asia is gaining a huge boost.

Today 20% of the internet traffic in Vietnam is via a mobile smartphone, this compares to 6% just two years ago in 2013. Mobile smartphones are clearly propelling mobile internet Vietnam, Asia and changing Vietnam’s consumer behaviour. Whilst mobile smartphone propels Vietnam’s internet penetration,consumer market research Vietnam, Asia shows that it is the frequency of access that is most strongly affected, we must remember traffic is still dominated by personal computers and laptops (and to a far lesser far lesser degree tablets).

This frequency of mobile internet access in Vietnam, Asia is gaining a huge boost, as evident in the native mobile app downloads that dominate both Google play and IOS stores. Chat, social media and video native mobile applications dominate downloads, interspersed with an inordinate number of games.

One example of note would be is Zalo, a chat native mobile application published by Vinagame, which has grown from 1 million users in 2013 to over 30 million users as of May 2015. In comparison Viber has 23 million users in Vietnam.

Online video media behaviour Vietnam, Asia

In 2015 23% of Vietnam’s online audience has watched videos on their mobile smartphone, which is year-on-year growth of 50%. Cimigo believe the next major shift in Vietnam’s consumer online media activity will be the convergence of video and mobile, impacting brand owners communication possibilities significantly.

The next technology race for active users of a mobile native applications in Vietnam will be the streaming of online video to mobile smartphones. Experience in China demonstrates the massive revenue opportunity waiting to be grabbed for the winner of this battle.

Digital brand marketing Vietnam, Asia

Mobile smartphones are rapidly changing the way consumers interact online and with branded communications online. Historically for Vietnam’s early NetCitizens, internet penetration has been strongest amongst those under 35 years of age in Vietnam.

Consumer market research Vietnam, Asia demonstrates that the mobile smartphone has driven penetration amongst Vietnam’s consumers over the age of 35 and geographic penetration from key cities into smaller towns and rural areas. Many of Vietnam’s consumers have simply leapfrogged the personal computer online experience directly to a mobile smartphone journey.

Digital brand marketing teams Vietnam, Asia should expect messaging applications, such as Zalo, to become omnipresent marketing tools with far greater power than direct digital marketing of old.

Digital brand marketing Vietnam, Asia will undergo a significant shift in the coming 12 months with the use of far more video branded communications optimised for mobile smartphones.

The key challenges from online, mobile, social media Vietnam, Asia 2015 for digital brand marketing Vietnam, Asia will be to:

Digital brand marketing programmes Vietnam, Asia need to shift quickly and effectively away from online marketing programs built for a consumer audience on personal computers and laptops. The shift to mobile smartphones inevitable and carries many more challenges for screen space, consumer attention and time allocation. Today even at the most basic level, the vast majority of brand owned online assets in Vietnam are yet to be mobile ready.

Digital brand marketing resources Vietnam, Asia will need to shift and do so rapidly. These resources include time, money, skills and content. Today’s digital campaigns are commonly social media pages and updates, banners or brand owned micro sites. A large part of the traffic is driven to brand owned assets from social media. Getting attention will require far more resource intensive videos on mobile in order to engage Vietnam’s consumers.

Digital brand marketing budgets Vietnam, Asia will have to brace themselves for the winners of the real estate battle for chatting and video streaming native applications. Social media promotion in Vietnam remains inexpensive. New dominant players in chatting and video mobile applications will be the omnipresent media channels to directly communicate with consumers. Soon the winners will be start to monetise and generate significant revenue from brands to access these consumers.

Cimigo Vietnam is an Asian focused consumer market research agency, we pride ourselves on being agile aided by the use of the latest technology to capture the true voice of consumers in Vietnam, Asia. All of our data collection is digital in Vietnam.

Cimigo Vietnam has seven offices in Vietnam; Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Danang, Can Tho, Hai Phong, Vinh and Nha Trang. Cimigo has one hundred and thirty market researchers in Vietnam and six hundred field interviewers armed with tablets. Cimigo operates five call centres, an online panel and numerous online and on mobile communities for market research.